Big increase in piglet fatalities

The death rate among new born pigs in Sweden is increasing, according to Swedish radio news Ekot.

Last year 23.5 percent of all piglets bred for the food industry died within their first few weeks. Ten years earlier, the figure was 19 percent.

Many piglets are still-born, others are squashed to death or starve. Ekot found that the biggest reason for the increase is that sows are now bred to conceive as many piglets as possible, due to the modern economic pressures inside the pig production industry.

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